Wood Fired Pottery Kiln and Pottery ShedStation 5
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The traditional Groundhog kiln is a distictive kiln type particular to the American South. A member of the cross-draft family, its characteristic form is a long, low rectangle, with a deep firebox spanning one end and a wide chimney at the other. It is often built buried up against a hillside or in the ground, hence the source of the name groundhog.
Artisans made utilitarian wares needed by the local farming community, such as churns, molasses and whisky jugs and food storage vessels of various sizes. Any decoration was simple, usually limited to one or more incised lines. |
Making PotteryPottery is the ceramic material which makes up potterywares, of which major types include eathernware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery (plural "potteries"). Pottery also refers to the art or craft of a potter or the manufacture of pottery.
Pottery is made by forming a clay body into objects of a required shape and heating them to high temperatures in a kiln which removes all the water from the clay, which induces reactions that lead to permanent changes including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape. A clay body can be decorated before or after firing. |
Firing ProcressThe groundhog kiln was semi-subterranean in construction featuring a doorway leading into a long, low passage of brick or rock construction, which terminated in a chimney poking out of the ground, up hill. The ware was loaded in the low passageway or "ware-bed" and the fire was built in the sunken firebox, located just inside the door. The chimney would draw the heat from the fire through the pottery inside. This type of firing or " burning " worked well with large pieces of pottery. Later, when potters made more and more smaller items they found that kilns shorter in length but higher were better for insuring that each small piece was fired and glazed properly.
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